Al Muthanna State Establishment chemical and biological weapons program headquarters

Al Muthanna was a giant five-kilometer square center for Iraqi chemical and biological weapons development. Its work apparently began in the mid-1980s, but much of its equipment and many of its deadly products were dispersed in the late 1980s and the months leading up to the 1991 Gulf War. Biological weapon production continued at least as late as 1990, UNSCOM has reported.

Al Muthanna's specialty was “weaponization” of chemical and biological agents The facility designing means to deliver poisons using warheads, bombs, and artillery shells, or by aerial spraying. Al Muthana also conducted field tests of radiological weapons intended to contaminate large stretches of battlefields with radiation.

The Al Muthanna facility was heavily damaged by bombing during the Gulf War, then systematically destroyed by UNSCOM weapons inspectors during 1992-1994. Nevertheless, UNSCOM says that thousands of tons of chemicals used in production of VX nerve gas remain missing.